Improvement in box-openers



J. H. GIESE. Box-Opener.

No. 208,590. Patented Oct. 1,1878.

UNITED STATES PATENT QFFIGE.

JAMES H. GIESE, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

IMPROVEMENT IN BOX-OPENERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 208,590, dated October 1, 1878; application filed August 31, 1878.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES HULING GIEsE, of Baltimore, in the county of Baltimore and State of Maryland, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Box-Openers, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The object of this invention is to provide an implement for opening boxes, which may also be used for driving nails and for removing cut nail ends from the lids of boxes.

To this end my invention consists of a tool that embodies in its construction a hammerhead for driving nails, a blade for cutting OK the nails that hold the lid on the box, and a punch for knocking the cut ends of nails out of the lid.

The accompanying drawing is a perspective View of my improved box-opener, showing its application in knockingcutnail ends from a lid.

A refers to the blade, adapted to enter under the lid of a box to cut off the nails that hold it closed. It projects laterally from a crossblock, E, one end of which is formed into a hammer-head, B, While the other end terminates in a punch, O. The tool is provided with a suitable handle, D. The entire tool may be formed of a single piece of steel, or iron with steel facings for the blade, hammer-head, and punch or the several parts may be manufactured separately, and afterward connected together in any suitable manner.

While the blade is designed for cutting off the nails, it is obvious that it may be used for prying the lids off. The tool, in removing the cut nail ends from lids, may be used hammer fashion, or the punch may be set on the nail end and driven by blows struck by a separate hammer or mallet on hammer-head B. The punch may also be used for driving nails farther into the lid in closing the box than the hammer-head B can drive them.

The blade extends preferably in the same direction as the handle, so that its cuttingedge will be crosswise of it. Thus it can be operated to cut nails by striking the end of the handle. The block E forms a shoulder across the blade, which prevents the bladefrom being driven farther than is necessary to cut the nails, so that the goods in the box cannot be damaged by it. The block E also forms a shoulder at the base of the punch O, in like manner.

The punch C is a square-ended or flat-ended punch, in order to adapt it as a practical device for the purposes of countersinking nails and removing the cut nail ends, as heretofore stated. It is not asharp-pointed instrument, as a pick is, which is not practically adapted to countersinking nails, and which, if used for knocking out out nail ends, would be apt to injure the cover.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The combination tool constructed, substantially as specified, with a chisel-blade projecting in the line of the handle, a hammer-head, and a square-ended shouldered punch.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to the foregoing specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JAMES H. GIESE.

Vitn esses JOHN P. DESTORGES, LOUIS GIESE. 

